A New Life
by The Nevermore Raven
Summary: The sequel to "Age of Darkness" and "Shadow's First Life". Shadow now is in a world that is strange and alien, with no idea of what to do with his lost life. Will the other heroes bond with him, or will he fade away in his despair?
1. Fear

**A New Life**

Chapter I

_Fear_

_A.N. This is the continued epic following Age of Darkness and Shadow's First Life. I posted the first chapter just to get the story rolling. I am busy with Fading Shadows. Do not expect updates for this story anytime soon..._

* * *

My second life started in darkness. This was not darkness in the literal sense, but it was a darkness of my own memories. I was awakened from dormancy once again. I awoke from a deep slumber as my senses returned to me. I soon realized in the gloomy place I awakened that I was trapped. I was lying on my back, facing out into a room through green glass. Through the glass there was a bleak room of darkness and steel, and a door to the right of the room opened, letting light into the room from outside. A person slipped into the room rapidly, and looked around the room. I could only see the person's silhouette; a shapely body, a rounded head, and large, prominent ears. Without warning the green glass covering me lifted, giving me freedom from my cramped prison. I dropped out of the device and onto the floor, but the person failed to notice me. _Or did they?_ Since the person had large ears, it was reasonable to decide that the person had exceptional hearing and the person must have heard me. Out of nowhere as I watched the stranger, a large mass of metal rose from the back of the room and red eyes glowed in the darkness, watching the other person.

The person was ready to evade, but she was not fast enough. The metal form opened fire with a gun, and on instinct I flew over to the person and pushed her down to the side, out of the spray of bullets. The red eyes then locked on me. The red eyes spoke with a metallic voice. "Destroy Eggman robots." "Wait!" The eyes and I paused to look back at the other person, who was a white bat. "I am after him, too. Why don't we join up and find him?" I remained silent. "Shadow, is that you?" My mind was a blank slate of black. I had no idea of what happened. I did not know why I was there, or who the others were. I did not even know who_ I_ was. Aside from knowing my name, I was in the dark. I turned an eye to the speaker. _Who are you? How do you know me?_ "Who are you?" The question rolled idly over my tongue, but it seemed to cause the white bat alarm. The bat paused with discomfort etched onto her face. "Are you Shadow?" She asked. "Yes. Who are you?" The bat looked pained. _Why is she acting like that?_ I watched her with an unmoved stare. "Don't you remember?" She asked, doubt and disbelief in her voice.

I did not know how to answer her. "Remember what?" "Do you remember anything?" She inquired. I hesitated. "No. But... you look familiar. I just can't remember..." I stood there as I told her. "Let's go find Eggman. He will have the answers." _Eggman? Who is Eggman? _"We are a team! Now, let's go get Eggman!" The girl ran off, and I reluctantly followed her as the robot followed me. I glanced at the robot. It was large, it was red, and it had a wide set frame with stout arms. "Why are you after this guy?" I asked it. "Eggman left E-123 Omega. E-123 Omega is mad. Destroy Eggman robots. Prove Omega superior." I nodded. _Temper in a robot. Interesting..._

* * *

To not know my past was trapping me in my own prison. I could not remember anything! I did not know who I was, or where I came from. And how did the bat know me? I was tempted to ask her. One day after we went fighting our way through some massive maze of metal and energy conduits, I did. We were at the end of the place, and it looked like a massive city, but it was one of Eggman's bases. We stood atop one of the city's buildings, and our little team was contemplating on one topic. Where do we go next? We punched and smashed our way through a barrage of orange robots called Egg pawns, flew over gaps and made great leaps over various platforms to get there. The sky was a vast ocean of cottony white clouds and sunshine. The roof on which we waited was far above the ground, one tower of many among a landscape of steel grey stretching out in all directions. Below me was the obscured darkness of the city that dove into the depths of a seemingly bottomless gap. I did not look down, for doing so would cause me to lose my nerve, which would result in distracting fear that dwells on my thoughts, like a persistent wraith that would forever haunt me as long as the threat was at large.

I stood high in the sky among my comrades, staring out at the incessant sea of towers and buildings of the city. The air was cool so high up, and the occasional gust of wind would interrupt the momentary silence. Omega stared blankly at nothing at all. Inside of the robot its processors were crunching away at numbers and statistics in an effort to determine where our next ambush would occur. It was after the passing of a moment that I noticed the bat girl was watching me. Her bright blue green eyes were staring at me, her eyes held a look of intense concentration. I did not return her stare, and after another minute of standing silently, I was inclined to speak. "If you stare too hard, your eyes will burn through my quills," I said briefly. The girl's eyes widened and she looked away, bothered by my sentence. A gust of wind brushed my fur, and the air was laden with a faint breath of iron. I spoke again. I was curious, yet at the same time cautious, for I was alone and vulnerable to deceitful versions of my past. "How do you know my name?" The white bat took a step towards me, and I glanced to the side, now focused on her. Her heels tapped against the metal of the roof.

"Shadow, how can I explain this? I saw a hedgehog that looked just like you about one year ago. I teamed up with him, and we cooperated with Eggman to gain control of some old colony in space." "Space..." I repeated. "Anyway," she said as she shrugged briefly. "His name was Shadow." I remained silent as I thought over her answer.

"Was this hedgehog me?" I inquired as I once again looked into the distance. The bat bit her lip. "I do not know. The Shadow I remember died as he fought a monster in space to save the world." I blinked as a breeze graced my frame.

"Why did he fight it?" "I am not certain, but he mentioned a promise."

"A promise?" I repeated her statement. The bat stepped closer to me. I could hear her steps approaching me, each step getting progressively louder. "He made a promise to some girl named Maria Robotnik years before. He forgot the promise, and someone deceived him. He originally thought the promise was for revenge."

"Why?" My carmine orbs glanced at her and my face stilled. "Maria Robotnik was killed by an army that wanted Shadow. He only mentioned her several times when I knew him. As the world was about to be destroyed, he remembered the promise was not to destroy the world, but to save it. He stopped the disaster, but he was lost. I never have seen his crimson eyes since." I closed my eyes and thought in silence. "He was very quiet. He was just like you." I turned to watch her as my ears swiveled to focus on her. "He was quiet. He was always thinking about something. He was a mystery. I felt bad when he died." The ivory bat let her voice soften as she finished. "Shadow was lost; I do not know what became of him," the bat explained.

"What is your name?" I watched her, my eyes remained devoid of emotion. "I am Rouge." "Rouge..." I repeated her name. It sounded like I knew it before, like it was a missing trinket that I had lost for years, finally to find it again and barely have it within my memories. I stared into the blue sky as a buzz emanated from the silent Omega. I realized something, and I told her, "You look familiar, Rouge. I just don't remember why." _Could I be the Shadow she knew?_ Omega lifted himself with his stout legs and turned to us, breaking our conversation. "Target found," the red robot announced. We got ready to leave the city and its stark metallic structures behind us._ I wonder... could I be Shadow?_

* * *

I saw more familiar faces when we were on our way through the jungle in a place called Frog Forest. Simple name, yes, but the people called it that. Through another maze of platforms and giant trees, we were soon at the end of the road. Once there, I saw some people that looked familiar, yet I could not place them in my mind. The people were a blue hedgehog, a golden fox, and a red echidna. We were on a ledge of some flat area, and these three just run up. "Talk about being full of surprises!" The blue hedgehog exclaimed as his two partners stared at us. "Shadow! Your back!" The young fox said with a smile on his face. _They all are familiar! I hate this! I feel hopeless..._ Rouge spoke up. "Long time, no see boys. Get out of our way. We are after Eggman." The hedgehog chuckled as his buddies watched him. "No kidding! We gotta date with Eggman too!" I smirked at the blue hedgehog and said, "This will be a date to die for!" The blue hedgehog got angry. "Hey! That's my line!" After a rather brief battle, we ended up in a tie. We soon parted ways. Thankfully, I would see them again after the whole 'date' was finished.

The next destination was one that caused me to have second thoughts. We managed, with some effort, to scale the cliffs of a canyon and defeat some machine that Eggman created on a mesa. The sky was filled with a palate of rich violet, orange, and pink from the bright orange sun as it set, slowly crawling below the horizon. The landscape was one of tan sandstone that had been carved into mounds and curved towers by a river many years ago. The features made of rock looked orange in the sun's light as the light cast deep and contrasting shadows across the canyon. Left among the wreckage was a dummy that looked vaguely familiar. "What is that?" I asked my partners. "That is just a robot that looks like Eggman, or it did." The dummy was sporting a rounded head, a thick red moustache, a red coat with swallowtails, and a peculiar, egg-shaped body.

Next to the dummy was something that caused my fur to bristle. A hedgehog was on the ground, and it looked like me. It had black fur on its body, a tuft of white on its chest, and quills that had red on their crests and more red on its arms and legs. The sight caused a second theory to enter my mind. _Could I just be a copy of Shadow?_ The body crackled with a hot yellow charged spark leaping from its neck, landing on the wide platform, and dimming into an indistinguishable fleck on the speckled face of ancient rock. Rouge looked at me with curiosity in her eyes, making me all the more nervous. What I concluded when I saw the electricity of the body chilled me as I barely restrained a shiver. I could feel cold buckets of water spill over me, for my fear so greatly disturbed me.

_Am I... a robot? _I was greatly disappointed with that idea, for I hoped to be something of more importance than some nonliving manifestation of artificial intelligence. My heart sank along with the last scarce iota of my feeling of self-importance. Had I known right then that my _heart_ is the very component that makes me a _person,_ therefore far more significant than an animal and a manmade robot, the knowledge would have caused me to have easily evaded much of my initial despair and sorrow...

* * *

The conclusion of the battle with Metal Sonic lacked an exceptionally happy ending for me. I felt an attachment to the other people I had met, thus I followed them to their homes, discovering that many of them lived close to each other. Sonic, Tails, and Amy lived in the same city, Westopolis, and Rouge lived in an apartment above a nightclub that she owned herself in a nearby town. Sonic, Tails and Amy each lived with his or her parents since they were too young to live by themselves. Sonic was seventeen, Tails was eleven, and Amy was thirteen.

All of them had a family and each other to pull them through their everyday lives. I was quite envious of them, actually, for I had lost my family decades ago. I was essentially a nomad, taking sojourn trips throughout the surrounding area and constantly finding my own shelter. I was a bum, a homeless and unfortunate soul that had no one with me. I solemnly promised myself that I would never take family for granted. Family is far greater than any amount of the overestimated things known of as money, drugs, alcohol, promiscuous sex, and power. I was fortunate to have a good one. Some people have strained and painful relationships with their parents, siblings, wives or husbands. My family was something that I am painfully grateful for, although I miss them immensely. The roots of my family have been torn violently out of my heart, leaving in its place a deep and excruciating wound that shall bleed profusely for the rest of my life...


	2. My Purpose

**A New Life**

Chapter II

_My Purpose_

Purpose. Everything I know of has purpose. This world is filled with more purposes than one can possibly imagine. The sun warms the Earth. The Earth is home to life. Life thrives, reproduces, dies, and adapts. The people around me have purpose. The plants and animals around me have purpose, as well as anything else that crosses my mind, even if I can't find the purpose itself.

Here in the bleak weather I waited as clouds roll and tumbled through themselves high above and dropped cool rain upon this city. I am completely lost. My confusion is not of regard to location; that is no problem for me. I am used to my so called home. I know the general areas of landmarks and places. I know where certain people live, where they can go home and rest.

The people I mention are the only individuals that I know. I do not even know them at all. I have met them, heard of them, briefly when a time ago I had a purpose, a destiny. I had a goal and an objective, something that I could work on every day as I still lived and acted in response to whatever conditions I was subjected to.

I wanted to destroy the world, to finish off humanity in all of its insolent pride and glory once and for all. I was at my rope's end; I could not bear the pain I have endured for all of my life any longer. And then this happened. Right as I was about to fulfill my purpose, life decided to throw a wrench into my plans and ruin everything? Why? I was shocked by the new revelation for I did not have the slightest clue about what it held in store. Not that anyone else cares about that.

Reader, this is why I mention purpose. You see, everything has a purpose. Sometimes the purpose is not always obeyed, yet the purpose is still there. I do not have a purpose. The more days go by and time continues her march forward, the more I feel that I am completely useless.

Rain tapped incessantly upon my head as I allowed a lonely sigh out of my throat. The rain had started a minute ago, and my fur is getting colder by the minute. A large drop of rain plopped against my nose, causing me to experience a tickling discomfort as I resisted the urge to sneeze.

"Atchoo!" My efforts to avoid the reaction failed as my head jerked forward and raindrops were thrown off my face. My body became colder in the rain, and a following gust of wind failed to provide warmth. My skin stung with the chill, and I decided to endure the discomfort. Why comfort myself? I have no purpose.

I took a step forward and narrowed my angry eyes as I looked around at the cement of the sidewalk, the tarmac of the road, and the glass of a nearby building. In the gloom of the rain, the building of glass appeared to be a dark blue shape that jutted into the sky. Behind me stood a parking deck, an arrangement of concrete pillars and grey floors stacked on top of each other. A red sedan rushed by on the road, sending spray into the air. I closed my eyes as the amount of water falling upon me doubled with the spray landing upon my back, thoroughly soaking my ebony fur.

A discontented growl escaped my lips as drops dripped off my ears, nose, and quills. Rain. Everyone else is in coats, in their buildings, under the shelter of umbrellas. They do not like rain. It is too cold, to grey, to wet and dreary. Rain does not bother me, for I feel the same way within my heart. Cold. Dim. Dreary. Attempting to make the lagging time speed up, I continued walking forward in the rain.

I believe I will get out of this rain, if only for a moment. I passed several more city blocks and started a sprint, flying forward as rain pelted against my body. Within moments I stopped in front of a pleasant looking house within a residential area. This area was more inviting than the downtown buildings, but it still held the look of bleakness weighing the scene down. I know who lives in this house I am watching, studying, and waiting near. He is one of the several individuals that I know.

With a sigh, I raced forth and hid in the back of the house, concealing myself in the back yard amongst the maple trees and juniper bushes. The leafed shelter provided me some comfort, and I sat down behind a shrub and against the trunk of a maple to once again muse to myself. I closed my eyes and listened to rain plop against the earth at my feet and softly tap the leaves that crowned the tree above. I rubbed my hand thoughtfully along the grooves of the tree trunk, fingering the jagged ridges of grey bark that had patches of light green and hairy lichen.

I am here because when I am near the others I am familiar with, I feel less oppressed. My mood lifts slightly, and my worries are diminished by the familiarity and comfort that the others seem to radiate. I am quiet and I am angry, but I realize that a soft spot is thawing in my frozen heart. I will not deny the fact that my heart is transforming, but I am reluctant to support it. Why should I love again? Every time that I have loved, I have ultimately received brutal loneliness, grief, and despair. Why should I love again, only to be hurt again, to expose myself to the pain that has crushed me in the past?

In order to love, I must be emotional, and in order to be emotional, I must be vulnerable to negative emotions as well as positive ones. That fact in itself would be balancing itself, but that fact does not consider the grief, the despair, the shame that I have experienced. My heart has been broken many times and on many occasions, and the shattering of my heart is to a far greater degree than one would expect...

I glanced up at the leaves above me. The maple leaves were a pale and gentle tint of silver from below, and they managed to calm me as I waited. My intended brief glance became a prolonged study. A burst of wind gusted through the leaves of silver, causing them to bend and softly rattle as the crown of the trees became a natural orchestra. I closed my eyes in my silence and waited on the trunk of the maple. The wind and the rain are so soothing, so gentle and calm.

Even the trees have purposes and many purposes in fact. They grow, they wait, they bask in sunlight, and they draw water from the earth. They provide natural beauty, they produce shade. A bird softly chirped and my heart felt at peace. The sound of a door closing caused me to twist my ears in order to focus on the source. One crimson eye opened partway, looking toward the house from the corner of my vision around the trunk that was now a part of my sanctuary.

At the back of the house, a golden yellow form moved closer to the trees, walking over the lush grass as I waited silently. I could see large, deep blue eyes glance about the small patch of forest in an intensive, thoughtful manner. My mind filled with fear. I am fond of the fox boy. Tails. I have the urge to bond with someone else, and yet I have this fear that weighs me down. What if he leaves me? What if he dies? What if I am a danger to him?

My fear continued to fester when I heard the subject of my thoughts speak reluctantly. "Shadow?" I opened my eyes and watched his deep blue ones; the shade of his deep blue eyes complemented the carmine color of my own. The young pup slowly, hesitantly approached me, stepping around the evergreen shrub to watch me more clearly. I remained silent as he asked his second inquiry.

"Shadow, what are you doing back here? Are you lost?" I replied in my emotionless voice. "I am not lost. I can take care of myself." The blue eyes of the child seemed, for a split moment, to be pained and they recovered their composure quickly. The brief reaction planted a thought in my mind. Does he care about me?

"Sorry, I did not mean to make you angry," the boy apologized. He looked to the ground before focusing on me again. "Why are you here? Of all the places around, I did not expect you to be at my home." I closed my eyes. "Hmph. Why does it matter?" Tails' eyes flashed something else for a moment and he remained silent.

With a shrug I sighed and admitted, "I do not know what I am doing here, boy. I guess I felt like being here." "Oh, I see." Tails flicked his ear after a drop of water plopped onto it, flinging the drop off his head and onto the ground of soaked leaves. "Why are you so sad, Shadow?"

His question caught me off guard. I had to register his sentence before answering defensively, "I am fine. Leave me alone, kid, or I will leave myself." The pup had a thought flash through his blue eyes. "I worry about you, Shadow. You always seem so depressed and alone," Tails stated as his eyes studied my own. With that comment, my mind snapped. "I do not need your petty kindness, boy. I am fine."

"That does not worry me." Tails stopped himself in his sentence, realizing what it seemed to be. "Sorry! That is not what I meant. I am trying to say that does not worry me right now. What worries me is that although you say you are fine, I can tell you are not." I growled and clenched my fist. "Leave me alone, boy," I said as I stood up and started to walk away. The kid had a glimmer of determination in his blue eyes. With that said, I quickly sprinted away and into the forest.

The surroundings of greenery and the tapping of rain on leaves surrounded me, filling my mind with peace. I leaned against a large, moss covered rock and closed my eyes as I lay on its soft carpet of green. Why does that fox even bother with me? He does not know what I have been through. He may know about it, but he will never know what it really feels like. Only a moment passed when I felt as if someone was watching me. "Leave me alone, fox." I could sense the presence from the boy as he stood just a meter away from me. "No, Shadow."

I was startled by his firmness, especially for his rather docile temperament. "What? I said leave me alone," I repeated myself. "No." My eyes opened and I saw two blue pools of intelligence scrutinize my anger. "Go away. Now," I threatened with my voice becoming more firm.

I heard the same answer. With that answer spoken I snapped back at him. "What do you want!? Go away!" I snarled and flashed my ivory white fangs. What happened next was something I could have never expected. Never. I felt a form press into my chest, nuzzling my chest tuft and two arms grapple onto me with gentleness. I was in shock, at a loss of words.

"No, Shadow." Two blue eyes looked up into mine from the fluff on my chest with tears forming at their corners. "I care about you, Shadow. I want you to be happy." The boy had a calm voice, a voice that practically exuded seriousness and honesty. With that said, I wrapped my arms gently around the precious form that held me and smiled contentedly. I sighed, relieved from the anxiety within my heart. "Thank you, Tails. I care about you too." I reached up to tousle his hair, and he smiled back at me.

I gripped the young pup tighter in my arms as the cold ice that filled my heart was thawed by warmth and affection. I realized something. It hurts a lot to love someone. Yet, the pain of not loving... it hurts far worse. My purpose... is to love. The weather above us did not care for our embrace. But the rain within my heart, the grey and depressing coldness, was burned through by a ray of warming sunshine...


End file.
